


The Future is what you make it, So make it a good one

by Fanat1c



Series: You Are My Monster extended Multiverse. [3]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: ...Kinda, Butterfly Effect, Character Death, Concept Luz - Freeform, Creepy Luz - Freeform, Cursed Luz, Good to Evil back to Good, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Time Travel, Timeline Shenanigans, Why am I deconstructing internal conflicts, Why’s Steven here now?, You’ll find out soon enough, again kind of, because it’s a little fun, internal conflict turned external
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27143410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fanat1c/pseuds/Fanat1c
Summary: It’s been around a month since the “Young Blood, Old Souls” incident. Despite the bittersweet ending Luz has taken it better than expected... until she didn’t. For the last week she’s been haunted by a nightmare, a darker retelling of her fight with Belos. (Un)coincidentally Belos’ new assistant, who has a strange connection to the Owl House, has been making a name for herself. With the day of Unity fast approaching time itself shatters leading the Emperor to order a mass course correction. Yep... the Isles aren’t close to being ready for this.*note I’ve removed the interlude and am reposing it somewhere else*
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Series: You Are My Monster extended Multiverse. [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945468
Comments: 5
Kudos: 51





	1. Things are never as they seem

**Author's Note:**

> Oh boy, here I go getting sucked into another fandom! This is my take on the whole creepy Luz thing, and as such I’m my best to create an intriguing setup. It may be a bit rough around the edges at the moment but I hope y’all will enjoy it. See ya later folks!

“Let my friends go?” Luz boldly declared, flipping forward. As she landed she slammed the staff into the ground causing a line of ice to protrude in front of the Emperor.

Belos stared at the spire in front of him for a moment. “Okay… I’ll play.” Luz watched as he melted and rematerialized behind her.

She found herself ripped off the ground as a red aura surrounded her. She tumbled across the room, slamming into a statue. 

A large crack spiderwebbed through the statue causing a large golden axe to fall to the ground which she narrowly avoided. The ground began to tear up in front of her and a demonic clawed arm was conjured seemingly out of nowhere.

In one swift movement Luz slapped a fire glyph on the earth and an ice on the arm before continuing to sprint. She hopped up onto the staff and took flight but was met by a ginormous slug.

She screamed as she flew inside of the beast but incinerated it with another fire glyph. The force from the glyph knocked her back onto her feat. She gripped the staff tightly as Belos began to speak.

“What’s wrong, human?” He coldly mocked “I thought you wanted to fight.”

More of the arms appeared from the floor and grabbed hold of Luz, pulling her down to the floor.

Belos stepped from the shadows and asked “had enough?”

Luz looked up at the Emperor with an indignant grin spread across her face “not even close.”

She used the moment of surprise to activate an ice glyph, causing a large shard to shoot up and hit Belos in the eye. The older witch groaned in pain as he gripped his eye, fracture pieces of his mask falling to the floor.

Belos chuckled as he regained composure. “I like your spirit” he said before turning back to the human, his piercing blue eye glowing in the darkness “but try that again and things won’t end well for you.

He walked forward towards Luz and began expositing to her “now I’m just a humble messenger for the Titan, in the grand scheme of things the Owl Lady’s life is inconsequential.”

Luz furrowed her brow as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing.

“Then you showed up.”

She felt a new wave of fear wash over her as Belos tilted his head to the side and stared directly into her eyes. 

“If you want to save your mentor then give me the portal to the human realm.”

Luz didn’t know what to do. He was asking for the portal, the one that contained the only way for her to make it home, the home where her mother lived. How much did Eda and King and Lilith really mean to her? Could she live with herself if she traded her own mother for them?

“But… my home” she said.

Then the sound of a spell casting rang out from above the two of them. After a moment a horrible screeching could be heard, Eda was in pain.

“You probably think we want to invade the human realm. But the Titan’s will is not so borish, you’ll understand soon” Belos explained, some form of regret leaking into his voice “Tick Tock human, the Owl Lady doesn’t have much time left.”

Eda’s screams could once again be heard. Luz couldn't bare to hear much more.

“No!” She desperately pleaded. She began to tear up before she relented and pulled out the portal key “Fine!”

Luz clicked the key and summoned the portal before uttering an apology to her mother. She approached the Emperor and abruptly held it out “here it’s yours!”

“The Titan will be pleased,” Belos said as he took the Portal from Luz.

She walked over to the platform and pulled up her hood.

“Go on then” Belos encouraged “go be a hero”

Luz turned her back as Belos slammed his staff on the ground causing the platform to raise. 

Summoning the required courage Luz responded “I may have lost but so have you.” She turned around and slammed the Owl Lady’s staff onto the floor, activating the glyphs she had hidden on the portal.

The portal burst into flames causing Belos to jump back and drop it. The wooden frame hit the ground hard and splintered into several pieces.

Smoke filled the room as Luz was raised above, the two of them locking eyes before she was gone.

Luz steeled her resolve as she reached the platform keeping her friends. She quickly threw a vine glyph at the device turning Eda to stone causing the plants to summon and destroy the machine.

But Luz was too late. When she turned around she saw that the Owl Beast was nothing more than a stone statue sending King and Lilith into a panic.

“What do we do?” King asked.

“The Spell was completed!” Lilith responded, her voice filled with abject horror “There’s no way for me to help her fight it!”

Luz felt pure, unrestricted anger flow through her veins. She turned to Kiki who said “Yes, the Emperor will revel in this triumph.” And approaches from behind with a fire glyph active in her hand.

“Free them, NOW!”

The diminutive creature instantly used a spell circle to unlock the cage. 

Luz ran over to the group huddled around the stone Eda without noticing the guards approaching from behind. She hugged into it hoping that she could do something to make everything better.

Before she did anything more Luz felt a sharp object stab through her back. Her knees buckled as the pole arm’s blade was wrenched out.

“Luz!” King Screamed “Lilith do something!”

Lilith took a deep breath before taking a small scroll of paper out of a hidden pocket. “Human, I’m sorry but this is the only way to save you”

Lilith drew a spell circle in the air but then began to draw the intricate glyph markings inside of it. The spell began to instantly take effect as an unnatural warmth spread through her body.

She looked down and saw her wound begin to close.

Luz was snapped out of the moment when an eerie voice spoke up. “I think that is quite enough Lilith.”

She craned her neck over to see the platform she arrived on rising up carrying Emperor Belos. 

As he walked over he addressed Lilith and King “I want you two to leave peacefully. My guards are ordered to give you safe passage to the Owl House and to consider all of your crimes absolved. But if you ever show any open insurrection again you will perish.”

Belos snapped his fingers causing the guards to begin escorting King and Lilith our. 

“As for you human,” he said, as he stopped. He abruptly reached out to Luz and began to continue.

But Luz didn’t hear what he said as everything faded to white.

Luz shot up in bed, beads of sweat coating her face as she tried to steady her breathing. She ran a hand through her hair while collecting her thoughts.

This was the seventh night in a row she had experienced that nightmare and overall a month since she faced Belos.

Hopping out of her makeshift bed, Luz snuck out of her room trying to be as quiet as possible.

She made her way through the Owl House and took a peek into Eda’s room to find her asleep with King curled up next to her. It always warmed Luz’s heart to see the two old friends together.

Luz also took the time to peer into the living room and see Lilith asleep on the couch. 

It still was pretty strange to see someone who had spent over half of their acquaintance attempting to hurt everyone in their little group now living here.

Heading back to her room she plopped down and checked her phone for any response from her mother. Eda had made some magical modifications to allow it to connect to the Isles equivalent of cell service but it still wasn’t enough to contact the Human Realm.

Luz sighed and took a brief look outside, but nothing more than a cursory glance. Dissatisfied she plopped into the bed and prayed that she wouldn’t have the nightmare again.

As she squeezed her eyes shut something felt off, an uneasy presence that was shoved off to the side. Everyone is fine, everything is okay.

With that Luz drifted off into a restless slumber.  
_

Luz’s sleep was marginally better the second time around. No ominous nightmares or midnight paranoia had appeared during her second bout.

Pushing her way off the ground Luz blinked her exhaustion away and lazily ambled across her room.

She sighed at the piles of junk littering the ground, she really needed to clean those up, and began to rifle through in search of her school uniform.

After about five minutes she found the ratty outfit. She haphazardly doodled a glyph she learned for cleaning and activated it. In under a second her uniform was completely spotless.

She changed and set off to go to Hexside for her first day back since the incident with the Emperor.

On her way she crossed paths with Eda who looked as spry as ever. It only took a once over from Eda to tell something was wrong with her protoge.

“Rough night?” She asked.

Luz cringed, this was a conversation that she’d hoped to avoid.

Forcing a smile onto her face she responded “Nope, you know me! Always filled with wide eyes and youthful optimism!”

Eda seemed satisfied with the answer, simply humming in response before returning to whatever she had been doing.

The young girl speed walked down the pathway to take the most direct route to Hexside. She didn’t fully understand why but she felt as if a distraction would ease her mind.

It didn’t take too much longer for Luz to reach the school. As she strolled onto campus she looked down in expectation of her uniform to change color.

For some unquantifiable reason she really enjoyed the transformation, maybe because of the complicated magic it must take, or maybe because it reminded her a bit of a Power Rangers suit up.

Strangely her colors didn’t change to the random assortment of rainbow colors like usual. Her outfit instead turned a solid violet to indicate the Oracle track.

As she was thinking over her confusion Luz’s phone buzzed with the tone she had set for Boiling Isles messages.

When the phone was turned on a message read out the following. “Greetings student body, this is Principal Bump. Today the Emperor’s Coven is sending a real inspector and as such will stop in with all classes at least once. All multi-track students are temporarily being assigned a single track to follow for the day, I apologize for the inconvenience.”

That made sense, the school was in dire need of financial support. If the Emperor’s Coven figured the breach of rules the school would be shut down in a heartbeat.

Even though the situation was disappointing Luz at least she had one of the more intersecting classes.

Then the bell began to scream, indicating the first period was beginning soon. Luz hurried off to her first class.

_

The school day was long and monotonous. She didn’t know anybody well in the Oracle track and the ones she did were either sick or in a different period rotation.

Luckily she was at her last period, ACC timeline deconstruction.

Walking into class she noticed the professor was one she hadn’t met before.

He was a tall, pale, lenkey man with spiky tufts of gray hair and a short white robe. He generally seemed disconnected and was nursing a large potion bottle.

She quickly took her seat at a lab station as he began to speak.

“Hello children” he said, a slight cough hacking out as he talked “I am Doctor Richard, I’m not your regular timeline deconstructor as I think the better approach is hands on.”

He gestured to the contents of the lab station.

“In front of you should be one of these babies” he directed, holding up a small blue crystal. “This is a death crystal, it literally shows you how you die.”

The bombshell reveal of the teacher elicited a series of gasps from across the room.

“Yeah yeah, I’ve heard it all before. Luckily if you’re living right there shouldn’t be a finite outcome. Now you may wonder what the point of having these is… I won’t lie, they're pretty worthless. But I want you to grind up your sample and apply it to your crystal ball with the tools in front of you.”

The directions were pretty simple. Luz replicated them with little effort, crushing the crystal into a fine paste and smearing it onto the ball.

Once everyone was able to move on Mr. Richard continued “Alright, now I want you to replicate this spell circle.”

He turned around and drew a glyph onto a nearby chalkboard. 

Luz quickly copied it down and activated the glyph causing a line to extend from the crystal ball. 

Assuming from the straightforwardness and random pop culture references she knew, Luz pieced together that this was her personal timeline.

“You should see the most probably calculated timeline in front of you. Now I want you to go nuts, look at your marriage, get the answers for that upcoming quiz, I could really care less.” Mr. Richard said before sitting down into his chair and taking a big swig from his bottle.

Luz became excited by the prospect of seeing the future. If things are going smooth enough she may have a chance to get home.

However when Luz examines the line she noticed all of the moments were gray with static. Contrasting with everyone else who had vibrant colored images and videos, something wasn’t right.

She raised her hand and got her professor to begrudgingly come over.

“Wh—hat is it?” He hacked.

“Mr. Richard, all of my timeline images are blanked out.” She zoomed in to show a specific instance “look at all that static. Do you know what’s going on?”

Mr. Richard examined the static for a moment before asking “how is your mental state?”

Luz scoffed at the personal question “I don’t see what that has to do with the current issue.”

“No, no, no I’m serious. Your potential futures spread from your present. This type of obscured future can only be one of two things, Time Travelers upsetting your timeline or unrecognized mental troubles. And since time magic was lost centuries ago I’m obligated to ask how you are in the head.”

The human thought for a moment, she wasn’t all right if the nightmares were anything to go by. Still she highly doubted that was the case.

“I don’t think so Mr. Richard.” She responded.

Mr. Richard grunted “Come on Luz, we all saw the footage. I know the Emperor pardoned you and explained there had been a misinterpretation of an order but you’re allowed to be affected by a fight like that.”

Luz had heard enough, she was just tired. “No… I think I’m fine.”

The teacher seemed to get the hint, a hint of concern still lacing his face. He simply gave her a nod and returned to the front of the class.

It wasn’t long before the final bell rang and Luz could go home. She was fine, why do people seem to think otherwise?

In a frustrated turn of events the sympathy and mental health questions didn’t stop as Luz went to leave. 

It should have been flattering to have so many teachers and fellow students show such concern for her but it just made her feel sick.

Eventually the constant attention got to be a bit too much for her and Luz decided to use the back tunnels.

Sneaking into a room with a chalkboard she drew the lock symbol and snuck into the secret passage.

Luz just wanted to find a friend to catch up with, someone to talk to who wouldn’t try and discuss how traumatizing her fight with the Emperor was. She searched for five minutes before finding Amity all on her own, cast off.

Seizing the opportunity she popped out of the passage.

“Hey Amity!”

Amity, clearly taken off guard, jumped back as her face turned a shade of scarlet.

“L-Luz… what are you doing here… at school... in the secret areas you’ve talked about… I’m doing it again aren’t I.”

“Well yes but for what it’s worth I think you sound cute when you get all flustered.”

There was an awkward silence between them for a brief moment before Amity broke it. “So what did you pop out of there for?”

“Because I wanted so see if you can hang out since classes are over for the day.” Luz responded.

Amity looked slightly disappointed before saying “Sorry Luz, but I can’t today. My parents are off on a day trip and they want me to make sure everything is ready at the house when they get home.”

“Aww, that’s too bad.” Luz sighed “well what about tomorrow?”

“What about tomorrow?”

“It’s skip day tomorrow. Eda is making me go into town with her and Lilith but she didn’t say I couldn’t invite some Tagalongs. I already asked Gus and Willow but they both can’t come.”

Amity’s face turned a little pink again as she processed the information. “So — it would be just — Me and You?”

“Yep!” Luz responded “You and I”

“Okay... sounds like fun!” Amity replied.

“Great! See you tomorrow.”

As Luz left school her mind began to race. For some reason she was really getting excited over the prospect of a day out with just Amity.

Not to be mistaken she really enjoyed hanging out with her other friends but something about the green haired witch made her heart… Flutter?... Whatever it was it didn’t matter. 

Then her thoughts turned to her home. The portal was gone, her nightmares constantly reminded her of that. Would she ever get to go home? Talk to her mother again?

As it currently stands there is no working portal in the Isles that can get her home. 

Luz became so engrossed that she barely recognized activity that would have been very suspicious. Out of the corner of her eye she could briefly catch a glimpse of a figure in a white cloak.

Luz whirled around in the direction but saw nothing, so she shrugged it off and kept walking.

Eventually she made it back to the Owl House and approached the door. As she went to knock a certain high pitched Bird Tube began to talk.

“Heeeeeeeeyyyyyyy Llllllluuuuuuuz. Welcome home Hoot-Hoot.”

“Hey Hooty…” she groaned “can I come in?”

“Nope!” He cheerfully replied “first you gotta guess the secret coooooodeeeeee.”

“What? Why do you have a password now?”

“Well I’ve been alone with King all day and he started to read one of you infectiously delightful books to me.”

Luz sighed really hard “and you got the idea to be like the talking door in the book?”

“Nope!” He said “I’m just an Agent of Chaos!”

“Look can you just let me in?” She asked tiredly, not willing to listen to a long Story Hooty most likely had prepared to give out the code.

Hooty gave her a look over before opening up. “On second thought, you look tired enough to chop me into little pieces!” He said not at all changing the way he was speaking.

Luz walked inside and immediately dropped into her sleeping area, not even removing her uniform. 

She was so tired, a nap couldn’t hurt, she just hoped she wouldn’t have that nightmare again.

_

But things weren’t as they seemed outside. Luz had missed someone, a figure in the shadow of the trees.

The figure stood in a form fitting white cloak and a brass mask that looked suspiciously like an owl. 

A light breeze whipped through their cloak as they turned to walk away. She followed the path back to town, only stopping for the occasional woodland creature, and eventually arrived at their destination.

The figure stopped outside a tavern to confirm their location before stepping inside.

Scenes of jovial cheer, distracted foolery, and mostly legal gambling ground to a halt as the figure stepped in.

All eyes were on them as she approached the bartender.

“W—what can I do for you?” The bartender asked.

The figure produced a single coin with a Raven insignia and placed it on the counter.

“I’ll take an Apple Blood, and whatever information you can give me about the residents of the house just outside of town.”

“...Right away!” The bartender replied before rushing off to fulfill the request.

The figure sighed and attempted to take a seat but found a hand roughly placed on their shoulder.

Looking behind her body the figure saw the hand belonging to a lightly tanned man with patchy dark red hair.

“Can I help you?” She asked.

“As a matter of fact bub, you can.” He responded

The figure gritted their teeth at the man’s crude demeanor. She responded “That is madam or sir to you, depending on how much you respect the left hand of the Emperor.”

The Man laughed “ooh la la, SIR. None of us take kindly to the emperor’s folk in this part” he said, gesturing to the still silent tavern goers “Mind explaining to everyone what you want with the fine people outside of town?”

“My mission is none of your concern sir.” She sneered “I am on official business ordered by Emperor Belos himself.”

“Find, you don’t wanna tell me then don’t tell me. I just think you Emperor’s Coven guys shouldn’t be so secret.” He indignantly spoke. “Maybe you can at least take off your mask.”

The man made a reach for the figure’s mask which was immediately countered. She grabbed his arm and swept his legs out from under him. As he slammed into the ground she violently pulled the arm, breaking it with an audible snap.

Another patron ran over to aid the writhing man. Placing a hand on his arm they said “Holy— you just broke Alex’s arm!”

“So I did…” the figure replied coldly.

She walked back over to the bar and grabbed her drink. “Oh and don’t bother with the information, twould be pointless to tell me something I already know.”

The figure made a b-line to the tavern door, stopping a brief moment to activate a glyph card and drop it on her victim’s broken arm.

“That will heal your wounds fifty percent. The rest is on you.”

As the figure stepped out into the dusk she thought about her next steps. She had a trap to be set and the perfect spot in mind.

The time to confront the residents of the Owl House was drawing near, and she had no intention to disappoint her old friends.


	2. Skip Day Sting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to set the stage for the larger narrative. 
> 
> TIME haha see what I did there?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go for chapter 2. I’m really excited to get the setup out of the way so the main plot can kick into high gear... see everyone after the chapter!
> 
> (Feel free to bookmark/save this in a convenient way if you feel like it)

Luz bolted upright. That nightmare again, why was this happening to her?

Every time she closed her eyes it was the same; Eda dies, Lilith and King are sent away, and she wakes up just as Belos makes a grab for her.

Her thoughts fired from the dream, to her last period class. Her future had been obscured… it was odd to say the least. The more she thought the more muddled everything got; why was her future obscured? 

Why are people assuming her mental health was declining? If Steven Universe can topple three intergalactic dictators and come out singing Luz can definitely walk away from a fight with a single Emperor.

Luz was roused from her thoughts by the sound rasping knuckles on her door.

Specifically there were four knocks, that meant it was Eda. “Hey Kid rise and shine, you gotta get ready right now.”

“Why now?” Luz groaned checking her watch “we still have a few hours.”

“Because your little friend is here and King won’t stop being passive aggressive to her and Lily.”

Luz smiled at that. “Maybe it can get those to to reconnect” She chuckled.

She heard Eda snort from the other side of the door. “Yeah yeah kiddo, just be ready in three so we can set off.”

Casting a quick look to her regular garb Luz quickly realized she may need a bit longer. She grimaced at the grimy clothing before responding “You may wanna make that six.”

In all honesty it didn’t really take that long to throw together a replacement outfit. With the amount of stuff Eda had stolen from the human dimension all she needed to do was sift through the clothes pile for stuff that fit.

She eventually settled on a tee shirt from some band called the Suspects, cargo shorts, and a hoodless full zip.

Luz ambled her way downstairs to see the situation had been mostly cleared up. King was sulking in the corner while Amity, Lilith, and Eda were sitting in awkward silence.

She semi-loudly cleared her throat to draw attention to herself. The four of them gave Luz a once over; Eda simply smirked, Lilith gave no indication of anything, King’s eyes widened in excitement, and Amity’s face turned a shade of Pink.

“Luz! You actually changed!” King excitedly yelled. He scurried his way over moving in his prison like a hamster in a ball. “No offense but your regular clothes were starting to smell funky.”

“Yeah I know.” Luz replied “thoughts everyone else?”

“It has a certain maturity to it,” Lilith added thoughtfully.

“Yeah… and it doesn’t have cat ears!” Eda snorted. “So when do we burn the old one?”

Luz slightly froze “oh no I don’t want to burn th—“

“Yes!” King cut off “The King of Demons demands the incineration of the cat hood.”

King went to run up the stairs but bonked into the stairs with his ball and spun backwards eliciting a laugh from everyone in the room.

“Yeah yeah mock my displeasure will you!” He squealed only causing the laughter to increase.

Once the laughter died down enough Eda turned to Amity and said “okay kid I think you can let him out now.”

Amity drew a dispel circle which caused the bubble around King to pop.

“Okay kiddos I think it’s time we get this show on the road.” Eda announced.

“Hey! I am not a ‘kiddo’” King petulantly responded.

“Yes you are King” Luz said, giving him a bopping on the nose.

With that the entire group set off on the ridiculously long walk to Bonesborough. Why were they walking? Apparently it was to lay low as some Imperial Loyalists could shoot a staff out of the sky.

The walk was mostly quiet giving Luz an uneasy feeling similar to the one she felt yesterday; not to mention every time she looked at Amity the girl blushed profusely. Luz was going to have to ask her about that when it became more convenient.

They walked for five more minutes when they encountered an… interesting event.

A large crowd of people were huddled around a local tavern as medical personnel swept in. Quickly a man was loaded into a stretcher, his leg broken in a gnarly unnatural manner.

The man looked over causing his eyes to light up when he saw Eda. He whispered something to a medical person who wasn’t doing anything.

After a brief moment that medical worker walked over and addressed Eda and Lilith “Edalyn and Lilith Clawthorne?”

“Yes,” Lilith responded “we are in a tight schedule so make this quick.”

“Alex would like to speak with you, something about the young woman who attacked him.”

“Okay…” Eda nodded “Lily let’s see what this guy has to say, Kids keep heading up towards town and stay out of trouble.”

“Sure thing” Luz replied.  
_

The Figure was perched on the rooftop with her battalion close by. She pulled the oculus extender closer to her eyes and peered down at her targets.

Her ploy was working perfectly as the man she hurt at the bar called Eda and Lilith over causing the group to split up.

“Uh ma’am?” The Figure turned around as she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Yes” she responded coldly.

“Well… the boys are getting a little antsy”

The Figure sighed “this is a concern to me why?”

“You’ve seen how they get on stealthy assignments. One if them could decide to go rogue any second, they need to remain preoccupied!” The Captain pleaded.

“Fine” The figure said “you are to take the men to Bonesborough and station throughout the target zone then wait for my signal.”

The Captain saluted “Sir yes Ma’am, what will you do?”

“I am to stalk my former teacher and former associate, just be careful not to be noticed or to harm the targets… they need to remain for the plan to commence according to Belos’ will.”  
_

The trio of Luz, Amity, and King continued the walk to Bonesborough in relative peace.

Of course there was one incident where a group of fifteen guards conspicuously rushed through loudly talking about how to catch their targets when they reached the city.

“Hey do you think they’re after us?” Amity whispered.

Luz snorted “probably, but they tend to be pretty incompetent.”

“But that’s a lot of armed guards…” Amity worried.

“Hah!” King laughed “those guys would be distracted by dangling a turkey leg from a rope. I think we’ll be fine.”

“Um, if you say so I guess” the Blight responded still not fully believing them.

After taking notice of Amity’s concern Luz couldn’t help but empathize. That look was one she echoed month prior when she first started to go on runs with Eda.

“Hey” Luz comforted “It’s gonna be okay, nothing bad will happen I promise.”

Luz took Amity’s hand in her own and gave it a squeeze. The two stopped and looked into each other’s eyes, almost trying to process some feeling not fully emerged yet.

The moment was broken when King let out a small gleeful noise. When the girls turned to look at him he facepalmed.

“What’s wrong?” They asked.

“Oh it’s stupid, you wouldn’t get it” he sighed.

Turning back to Amity Luz gave a shrug and resumed the trek towards Bonesborough.

_

The figure rolled her eyes under her mask as Alex, the man she injured, began describing their encounter last night to the Clawthorn sisters.

“The young woman was at least 17 Brapples high and had lightning quick reflexes. She savagely attacked me after talking about finding you guys.”

Eda put her hand to her chin “describe the outfit again.”

“White cloak, a brass mask made with a distinctive avian shape, and proficient in that strange card thing your human companion does.” Alex explained.

“Thank you for the tip” Lilith said “best of wishes on your recovery.”

Finally they were going to pick up their pace. She had already planted the tracker on Eda’s staff; all that needed to happen was to get the staff sent to Luz.

She stalked her way through the tree line all the while never letting Eda and Lilith leave her sight… it still felt strange seeing the two reunited. The entire time she studied under Eda and worked alongside Lilith the two never showed any propensity of reconciling. 

When the sisters got close to Bonesborough they began to converse.

“Lily I got to ask, how do you know this ‘mysterious stalker’?” Eda asked.

Lilith sighed “I believe the description matches the Emperor’s other assistant.”

“Other assistant?”

“Yes… I was the right hand of Belos, she preferred the term left hand. She was a more shadowy operator that used glyph magic. No public past, or even name.”

Eda grimaced “So at best we’re dealing with a wild card that could possibly be on the power level you were at before this current curse situation”

“I'm afraid so Edalyn.”

Lilith's genuine concern made the figure feel a little prideful. She knew she had an impact on the older witch but never that big of one.

She followed the pair as they entered the bustling city and made their way to the library. Since the two were entering through the main doors The figure opted to sneak in through a maintenance entrance on the roof.

Before entering she made sure to signal her the men around the building to block off all exit points. It was time to spring the trap.

The figure scampered through the rafters of the desolate library, the voices of Eda and Lilith reverberating throughout the interior.

After less than five minutes an audible snap could be heard along with their screams and struggles.

Dropping to the floor in front of the captured witches, she snapped her fingers causing the lights to ominously turn on one by one. “That’s a good entrance right? That felt like a good entrance.”

“Eh a little overboard and cliche in my opinion” Lilith glared.

“Yeah well you never had any sense of showmanship Lily” The figure retorted.

Eda made a quick tug at the trap that had hold of her arms making it tighten and constrict her arms.

“So you’re the one who’s been stalking us huh” Eda said “what exactly is this thing you have us in?”

“Oh” The figure responded “That is a towing sock, real classic, the more you struggle against it the more it constricts you.”

Eda smugly grinned at the description.

Knowing her sister Lilith shouted out “Edalyn don’t!” But it was too late to stop her from hardly tugging at the trap.

Eda loudly hacked and coughed while the trap expanded onto her torso and squeezed even rougher.

The younger sister readied herself to go again but was momentarily stopped by Lilith.

“You can stop struggling Edalyn” Lilith said “This is a simple spell but near unbreakable.”

The figure only watched as her former mentor continued to struggle against the bonds as if purely to spite Lilith.

She watched as Lilith rolled her eyes before turning forwards. 

“So, how does it feel?” Lilith asked, indignation lacing her voice.

“How does what feel, Lily?” The figure responded with a mocking tone. She knew exactly what Lilith was referring to, but she wanted to hear it said out loud.

“Ever since you showed up and became the Left Hand of the Emperor you always wanted an active role in leading the coven… you just couldn’t wait for the opportunity to depose me.”

“Oh that all?” The Figure Laughed “I guess you could say it feels hollow; I once thought watching you suffer would fill that void.” She continued gesturing to herself “but nothing can fill the hole Eda left inside me…”

Eda stopped her struggle and looked at the figure in confusion. “The hole I left inside you? Kid I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

The Figure chuckled again “but I am afraid you have Eda, you could say we were family.”

“No I couldn’t!” Eda spat “not while you hide your identity!”

“I shouldn’t need to reveal it Eda, you trained me. That time, though brief, was intimate. We connected on an almost familial level.”

“There may be validity to her statements Edalyn.” Lilith Piped up. “This girl has taken after you in several aspects for the entire time I worked with her. She has enough spirit to have been your apprentice.”

“But the thing is I never had another apprentice! Luz is the first person I actually taught something too.” Eda explained “I think I’d remember an entire apprenticeship”

“And you are right, unless of course someone hit the rewind button.” The Figure said.

“But wait… that means—“

“Yes I’m afraid it does” she cut off.

The eyes of both Clawthorne sisters raised, expressions turning from oblivious to shocked to angry in a matter of seconds. 

Eda attempted to lunge forward again, ferally tugging on her restraints “Who are you!”

“Well I suppose you’re owed that much” The figure chuckled “to be honest you may not like what you see”

The figure grabbed her mask and disengaged it with a sharp tug.

Eda and Lilith’s eyes both widened in shock and despair as everything clicked back into place.

“Wait how are you one of them? How are you part of the Emperor’s Coven?”

“Oh Eda I’m not just a member, I lead it. I thought you’d at least be proud of who I’ve grown into.”

“How could I be proud of this?” Eda asked “This is the exact opposite of everything I stand for! In all the time I knew you, you never showed an inkling of ability for leading the Coven.”

The figure laughed “Oh you do know me now? That would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic. I’ve known Belos far longer than I ever knew you Eda.”

Eda locked eyes with her, pain slowly melting into anger. The Elder witch’s fists clenched as the bonding grew harder than the previous times combined.

Lilith shouted “Edalyn stop!” As the trap tightened once more “you’re only going to get us killed!”

Eda stopped pulling at her sister's command. Obviously still stewing she glared at The figure.

“Come on Eda…” she began “just tell me where Luz is and nobody gets hurt. Well you know, more than they already have.”

The Owl Lady scoffed at The figure’s words before whistling. In a matter of seconds Owlbert shot overhead causing Eda to scream “Find the kids and get them as far away as you can!”

With the command the staff extended its wings and flapped off at incredible speeds.

“Let’s see you find them now” Eda boasted.

The figure nonchalantly raised her hand and retrieved a glyph card from her cloak pocket. When she tapped it a map of Bonesborough appeared with a small green dot on it.

“Would you look at that, found them.” She responded “a small tracker on your staff works wonders when you understand how to slip it on undetected.”

Eda and Lilith looked as if they were going to have a heart attack

“Bahp bahp don’t give in yet, if not for me then for your current protege.” The figure took her mask and placed it back onto its place. She then turned and walked towards the door “Tata for now Clawthornes I have an important meeting to attend with the younger Noceda.”  
_

Luz rushed through the winding alleyways of Bonesborough while grasping Amity’s wrist.

Amity had been right about the guards, but then again when wasn’t she right about stuff, so now they were running.

They had told King to find Eda and Lilith so it was just the two of them leaping and bounding through back alleyways in an attempt to shake the seven or so guards in pursuit.

Luz knew they couldn’t keep their current pace forever and began her attempts to find a decent hiding spot. Eventually she settled on a close loading dock for a potion emporium. The two settled behind a collection of wood crates as the guards arrived outside.

Amity opened her mouth as if to say something but Luz simply shushed her and placed a finger on her mouth to keep them both quiet.

The troop of guards stopped just outside of where they sat hidden before discussing how to move forward.

“Alrighty boys where did we last see them?” An authoritative guard with captain’s markings asked.

“I don’t know Cap. They just vanished into thin air!” A more timid sounding guard responded.

“Private, do you understand that a human and a witchling cannot vanish.”

“Yessir”

“So that means they have to be hiding, and what do we do when a target is hiding?”

“W—we smoke them out?”

“Very good! Boys I want you to fan out and set strategic locations of the block on fire.”

The guards then hustled off all cheering about fires and their excitement to light them.

When they were for sure alone both girls could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“I don’t understand how you do this Luz” Amity said.

“Well neither do I” Luz honestly admitted “I just kind of go on instinct and an adrenaline high until the danger stops”.

“Really?” Amity exclaimed “That can’t be good for your heart rate or blood pressure”

“Oh don’t worry, last I checked I was at a totally not dangerous and healthy 235 for my heart rate”

Luz cocked her head in confusion “since when are you so concerned about my health? You really are going soft on me Blight.” She gave her friend a teasing punch to the shoulder.

Amity chuckled “I kinda like you, don’t tell anyone.”

Luz went to continue giving her friend a hard time when she found herself beginning to choke.

Both girls attempted to hold their breath in order to refrain from coughing but quickly found the task more than daunting. After barely five minutes both Luz and Amity were hacking out smoke as flames crept around the building they were underneath.

Once they began to cough the platoon of guards surrounded the area. “Luz Noceda! Amity Blight!” The Captain yelled “We have you surrounded, come out with your hands locked!”

Luz sighed and pulled a folded piece of paper from her jacket pocket. When unfurled it read ‘EDALYN CLAWTHORN’S GUIDE TO QUIPPING’

Luz scanned the page and yelled back “What are you gonna do if we don’t!”

The Captain sounded a little taken aback at this. “Well… we are the authorities so you have to come out.”

“I know that, but what are you actually going to do if we refuse and stay here”

Amity tapped Luz on the shoulder and whispered under her breath “Luz! We can’t just stay here with the smoke.”

“Yes of course I know that Amity. I’m calling their bluffs” Luz flipped the page and pointed to one of the lines “I’m following code 4 subsection F of how Eda tends to talk her way out of these situations.”

“Right…” Amity said with a small face palm “I am going to die because you’re trying to be witty.”

Luz was preparing another line from the page when the guards began to scream followed by a series of soft coos.

The two girls peaked over their hiding spots to se Owlbert floating with the staff surrounded by incapacitated guardsmen.

“Owlbert!” Luz cheered “You cute little Deus Ex Machina.”

Luz grabbed Amity by the wrist once more and hopped onto the staff which shot up into the sky at breakneck speeds. 

Once they were at a high enough spot to allow the smoke to thin out.

Looking down the duo watched as the fire spread far beyond the block where they were hiding.

“Yeesh those guys really did a number this time” Luz began “they destroyed… quite a… bit”

That was when the library caught her vision, the beautiful landmark catching fire, the same building that housed her mentors.

Luz felt herself zone out, captivated by the destruction. Her mind flickered through images both from her nightmares and actual memories of the fight with the Emperor.

Flames, she had destroyed her way home by physically burning it… just like how Bonesborough was burning right now.

She didn’t notice when the staff took a downturn, there was no recognition of Amity screaming and shaking her shoulders. There was only a tightness in her chest and tears flowing from her eyes. Burning, burning, as if the same flames that trapped her in the Boiling Isles were now going to consume her and everything else she cared about.

Luz was finally pulled back to reality when Amity yelled “Luz snap out of it!” 

Aware of their descent she realized that it was too late to regain altitude. Seeing only one course of action Luz gestured for Amity to hold on tight as they crashed onto a nearby roof.

When Luz went to get up and check on her friend she found herself met by a sword leveled at her throat. The guard holding the sword happily exclaimed “Gotcha!”

Taking a glance around Luz saw that Amity was in a similar situation with about five guards standing by.

The situation seemed hopeless… well until an unfamiliar voice called out for the guards to stop.

_

“Stop!” The figure commanded her forces.

On cue her guards stopped spreading the fire and put their weapons to the side.

“What were you imbeciles thinking!”

Sheepishly the captain approached her “well you told us to apprehend the fugitives so I had the boys to smoke them out.”

She felt her anger rising. Filled with rage she slapped the guard across the face “My orders were to keep them alive!”

“But ma’am it was only a little fire.” He pleaded

“A little fire— A LITTLE FIRE! A tenth of Bonesborough is being consumed by your little fire!” She screeched in the captain’s face. The figure reached into her coat pocket and produced a small glyph card “I am under strict orders to eliminate unnecessary troublemakers, give me a good reason why I shouldn’t use this glyph and remove you from the present situation.”

The captain broke down into a blubbering mess, dropping to his knees and clasping his hands together. “Please! I’m sorry… I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it! I swear I’ll be better!”

The figure continued to glare at the captain. By all means she should be killing him now, he directly deserves it, but she just can’t bring herself to do it. Especially as he is literally sobbing at her feat.

“Fine” she sighed “against my better judgement fortune smiles, another day of wine and roses.”

“Oh thank you thank you!” The captain proclaimed, standing up to shake her hand “I will make sure all will remember your grand mercy throughout the guard!”

“Yes I suppose you will” she responded, slightly smiling beneath her mask. “Now I want you and your men to leave us, I require a private chat with the captives.”

“You heard the boss boys, Move out!”

It barely took any time before all of the guards had moved out to leave The figure alone with Luz and Amity.

She promptly walked over to the two younger girls and performed a dispel on their constraints.

“Huh why did you release us?” Amity asked

The figure chuckled “This is a friendly conversation, not an interrogation. I find people are liable to hold a calmer disposition when they aren’t binded.”

“That just sounds like interrogation with extra steps…” Luz chimed in.

The figure scoffed at this “Ladeeda it’s not like my job is to hunt you down.”

“Fair point, so how does this work?”

“Well Kids you tell me what I want to know and I’ll tell you what you want to know. Simple as that.”

The two girls blatantly glanced at each other and silently coordinated what they wanted to do. 

After a minute Luz turned back and said “Fine, but we get to go first.”

“Fair enough” The figure sighed.

Luz was silent in contemplation for a moment before asking “Who are you?”

“Wow you’re really starting us on a big one.”

“Answer the question” Amity demanded.

“You should already know… but fine, I am the Emperor’s left hand, former partner of Lilith Clawthorne and previous apprentice of Edalyn Clawthorne.”

“Wait!” Luz gasped “Eda never mentioned an apprenticeship prior to me.”

The figure laughed “That’s because she didn’t know about it. I doubt she’ll ever remember it properly. Now I believe it’s your turn Ms. Blight.”

“How much do you know?” Amity asked.

“You’re gonna need to be a smidge more specific with your question.”

“How much do you know about me?”

The figure cocked her head and prepared to let loose the floodgates. 

“Amity Blight, the youngest child in the Blight bloodline, you dye your hair out of your own free will because you feel out of place when compared to your siblings, you’re absolutely miserable in the Abomination Track despite excelling in it but stay because it’s the one thing your parents still ask of you, you’re obviously in love with someone but your secret is safe with me because it’s far more fun keeping it to myself.”

“Wow… that was a lot of very intimate knowledge.” Amity said shocked.

“I could keep going but I have a question for Luz.” The figure snarked “With everything that’s happened how do you really feel Luz?”

“Wh-what?” Luz stammered “I— I—‘m completely fine.”

“Oh come on we all know you’re blatantly lying. You almost died countless times, Eda basically died in front of you, Amity broke her leg because of you and the only portal connecting the Isles to the Multiverse was destroyed by you.” 

“What do you know about those.” Luz replied in a drained monotone.

“I’m trying to get a better understanding of you, the one person in the Isles I know better than anyone else.”

Luz clenched a fist 

“You don’t know me and you don’t know how I feel!” The Human growled.

“Oh I do, I know you’re haunted by nightmares every night, I know your heart flutters whenever one of the three Blight kids enter a room, I know you still keep a shard of the portal in your pocket, and I know that you’ve been terrified about the prospect of returning home.” The figure sneered in an attempt to push Luz’s buttons to get her to spill any valuable information. “then again, I wonder what Camilla would think if her daughter came home from a demon realm with PTSD.”

Suddenly Luz bounded over at The figure ready to fight.

“How do you know her name!” She yelled.

Luz threw a punch that was easily dodged. The figure grabbed the girl and threw her across the rooftop.

“There!” She boasted “that isn’t the reaction of a person with a healthy mental state.”

“SHUT UP!” Luz screeched.

The figure almost continued but met a foot to the back of her head courtesy of Amity.

Quickly The figure whirled around and grabbed Amity by the leg and grabbed a glyph from her pocket. She slapped the glyph onto Amity causing her to fall limp.

“Don’t make me hurt her Luz.” She said “I wholeheartedly don’t want to”

“Then why are you doing this!” The human cried.

“Because I need to get you to see, and I’m almost there.” The figure replied. “And I need to understand how different everything is, cause and effect can be a tricky thing.”

“Who are you!?” Luz asked, almost screaming.

The figure smirked underneath her mask as a giddy excitement spread through her veins.

“You know so much about me! About Eda and Amity. And my Mother’s name! You know intimate details and our fears, you can use them against us!”

“I think it should be pretty obvious who I am given the information you acknowledged… frankly I’m insulted that you haven’t put two-and-two together.” The figure dropped Amity allowing the young girl to rasp in some quick breaths “There is only one person I can be.”

The figure grabbed her mask and ripped it off, allowing it to fall to the ground with an audible clang. 

She watched with glee Luz’s pupils contracted in dread.

“No… nononono how can you be me!”

The figure grinned and said “Oh I can be, very much am. Call me Lus, now let’s have a frank discussion because I am very worried about my past.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boom Big reveal! I am very excited to be doing my take on a “creepy Luz” type narrative. I have a load of backstory ideas for Lus and I’m deciding if I should work it into here more thoroughly or put the whole thing in a separate collection. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, feel free to comment your thoughts below and I’ll see y’all soon!


	3. Flames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revelations are had, fates are broken, and and a dark realization of the future is enough to break Luz’s Facade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Strap yourselves in, this wild train is staying the course. Have fun y’all!
> 
> (Check the end of the chapter for actual notes)

Luz was in shock. The woman in front of her, the figure who hunted them, was her future self. Rather Lus as she asked to be called.

“It’s like looking in a mirror,” Lus said “well, not quite.” Gesturing to her body.

Luz’s counterpart looked a couple inches taller and at least two or three years older. Her hair was lengthy and unkempt, in addendum there were deep bags under her eye sockets.

Working through the abject horror Luz managed to rasp out “What are you?”

“Think of it like a bit of software, I’m running the latest version while you’re a few versions behind.”

How could this be happening, why would she be allied with the Emperor? Why would she lead Belos’ Coven?

“No you can’t be, I will never lead the Emperor’s Coven.” She declared.

“Oh You won’t now? I’m sorry are you the one who actually knows Belos?” Lus said with feigned shock.

Luz shook her head “I can’t turn my back on my friends!”

“But you're not the one to turn your back. We’re the one who gets abandoned.” The older girl replied in a dark disposition.

Luz bit her tongue to keep from screaming at her future self. Eventually she put the pieces together. “Wait. Those nightmares I have been experiencing… are they your memories?”

Lus solemnly nodded. “I had to watch as Eda died, then I had to live as my so-called friends turned their backs on me while being literally stabbed in the back. I was broken both mentally and physically, then Belos showed mercy. He took me to a healer and explained how we caused an epiphany. He wanted to stop the carnage and enlisted my help but found pushback in a resistance led by Lilith, King,... and Amity.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, this couldn’t be right. Luz’s friends wouldn’t do that. 

“Then came Gus, Willow, Emira, Edric, and oh so many more. Each and everyone of them turned their backs when I needed them most!” Lus screamed. “But… that might not happen this go around; If Eda can survive then maybe this timeline will lead to our little friends becoming decent people.”

Luz shook her head “Well maybe they were— I know them they wouldn’t just turn away from us… right?”

“They can,” Lus responded, “By your perception you haven’t spent a year in the isles, much less three like I have. You may learn soon enough how little of a perfect world this is”

The two stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, neither could say anything nor wanted to, the disgust between them was nigh palpable.

As Luz opened her mouth to break the silence she found herself blinded when a light glyph was dropped from above.

She blinked rapidly to clear her eyesight as the voice of King boldly declared “hey dollar store knockoff human! Take this!” Followed by a rock being winged at her doppelgänger’s forehead.

The younger human looked up to see King, Lilith, Eda, and a still limp Amity all huddled onto the staff.

“Kid, take my hand” Eda urged while reaching down.

Luz went to take her mentor’s hand, hesitating only for a moment to stare back at the disoriented Lus.

“Luz come on. We don’t have much time!”

Without another thought Luz grabbed Eda’s hand and was pulled onto the staff. As the group shot off back towards safety she clenched tightly to the older woman’s chest all the while not taking an eye off the smoldering rooftop.

She found her consciousness swiftly fleeting. Luz let the blackness envelope her as the haunting words of her future self reverberated through the deepest corners of her mind.

“I had to watch as Eda died, then I had to live as my so-called friends turned their backs on me. I was broken both mentally and physically.”

Unconsciousness was embraced as a chill ran through the Human’s spine.  
_

Lus scowled, watching the group skate away. She turned and cast a gaze across the inferno consuming an entire district of Bonesborough.

She was not looking forward to being nagged for this failure nor did she want an angry gathering of property owners hunting her down. Lus wiped the grime off her wounds before clicking her mask back into place and descending from the rooftop.

It didn’t take long before she found where that captain had taken the guardsmen just sitting around and relaxing.

“I don’t suppose you’ve been making yourselves useful have you?” Lus said, startling the guards.

The Captain jumped back in surprise before responding “Uh sir I apologize but the boys needed rest.” He gestured to the guards “some of them inhaled too much smoke.”

Lus surveyed the large group, finding about five guards definitely suffering from smoke inhalation. “About the rest of them… why aren’t they helping to quell the blaze?”

The Captain tugged at his collar and began to stutter “well… the thing is… uhm well”

“Just as I thought” 

Lus had run out of patience, grabbing the captain’s hand she tugged and broke one of his fingers with an audible SNAP! 

“I am fed up with your lazy and tired excuses, now you and the men will assist in relief efforts for all the damage you caused or I WILL end you without a second thought.

“B—but I thought you said you’d let me live!” He blubbered.

Lus shook for a moment before allowing her frustration to explode out “THAT WAS BEFORE YOU LET A HOUSECAT WITH DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR RELEASE TWO HIGH PRIORITY TARGETS AND RESCUE THE REMAINING!”

She took a deep breath.

“And I’m gonna have to explain all of this to Emperor Belos while he is in an ominous mood and you know how he gets while in an ominous mood.”

The Captain gulped and stood at attention.

“Now I want every capable man to assist in dousing this blaze” Lus commanded “do you understand me Captain”

The Captain saluted “Yes Sir; You heard her men, Move out of you can!”

With that the guards were off to assist in the relief efforts. She gritted her teeth as a slight buzzing could be felt from her side pocket.

Lus retrieved a scroll from her pocket, her face falling as she looked at it, Kikimora was calling her.

The girl quickly absconded to an area away from prying eyes and ears, hesitantly accepting the call.

“What took you so long Noceda?” Kiki said in her sarcastically prissy tone.

“Oh I don’t know…” Lus responded “maybe I was doing my job.”

“Your job? Is that why a large portion of Bonesborough is on fire?”

Lus caught her temper rising and attempted to calm herself down “That isn’t my fault. If you would give me assistants who were actually competent” her hand compulsively traced along her back “then maybe I could actually bring some results.”

“You keep telling yourself that… human” Kiki chuckled, her voice dripping with contempt. “Regardless the Emperor will have a word with you.”

As soon as Kikimora finished the scroll flickered. A ghostly mist began to spill out of the scroll, through it came the imposing figure of Belos.

“Hello Lus… tell me the status of your personal mission.”

“It went well until the men provided to me allowed King to escape. If they had simply captured the demon the entire operation would have run smoothly.”

Belos raised his hand to silence her. “I don’t care for the nuances… I must know how different this timeline is from the one you hail from.”

“I was unable to learn much.”

“Then you have failed the mission, a mission that you yourself requested.”

“But Belos” Lus pleaded “you need to under—“

“DON’T TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO UNDERSTAND!” Belos snapped “and take that ridiculous mask off.”

Lus begrudgingly reached to disengage her mask, it fell and softly clattered to the floor.

“Have I not given you everything?” she said while clenching her fist “I was sent back to stop a war, to ensure the insurrection doesn’t interfere with the Titan’s will.”

Beginning to pace and let off steam she began to rant “I asked for top men to lead, this was a stealth incursion! Thanks to the incompetent same old guards the fledgling opposition has two aces they didn’t have before.”

“And they are?” Belos coldly asked.

“Eda Clawthorn and the more concerning one, ME! My personal history is being rewritten because I was given a group of bumbling pyromaniacs!.”

Lus turned back to the image of the Emperor who still stood in a disapproving manner. “You could have easily completed this job without any guards yet you asked for a platoon… all I hear are excuses from a young woman who can’t accept she failed.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lus Scoffed. 

“It means that we need to chat about your continued employment.”  
_

Luz woke up quickly allowing tears to spill out of her eyes and down her face.

As quickly as they began the young girl began to wipe them away. She had experienced a worse nightmare than ever before, because this one didn’t ominously cut to black, it kept going.

Belos’ voice still as chillingly dark as before finished his sentence “this is no place to die”

Luz shivered and ghosted a hand across her back, there was no scar or indication that she was ever impaled.

She shook the thoughts off and exited her bedroom, if you could even call it that, and made it to the closest bathroom.

She turned on the sink to the highest it went and splashed the water onto her face. There was so much left to unpack from earlier. She guessed that the most pressing comes first, SHE WAS GOING TO TURN EVIL!

That was the one plot twist she honestly never wanted to experience in the isles. Evil Twin, sure, Time Travel, most excellently, but holy Great Scott had those two tropes combined into the most terrifying thing she could imagine. 

And then she remembered the… other… incident. She locked up when she saw fire again. This marked the third time since the incident with Belos that she had experienced a negative reaction to fire and explosions.

Luz’s knees turned weak as she tried to fight back a fresh set of tears. Horrible thoughts of burning and Belos and her future self’s words began to barrage her all at once.

She fell backwards against the wall and had to physically prop herself up to keep from sliding to the floor.

There was no stopping the sobbing now, she missed her mother so much. Loudly she began to cry and scream for her mom.

The portal and the flames that trapped her in the isles so far from home she just wanted to go home!

She could see Camilla’s face, the mom that worked so hard to make life decent. Her loud sobs became reduced to small whimpers… she just wanted to go home, but her future self proved that she wasn’t going to.

Next came a timid knock on the door.

“L-luz are you okay?” The small voice of King came “it’s fine if you don’t feel like talking but I want to help.”

Luz slowly pulled herself up and looked into the mirror. Her eyes were red and rimmed with stray tears. There was no use in trying to hide this from King and she honestly couldn’t tell if she has the strength to pretend at the moment.  
_

It took less than a moment for Luz to open the door and bring King over to her sleeping area.

“Will you just tell me what happened?” He asked

“Shh, not yet.” She hushed.

Once they were situated behind closed doors King asked again “seriously what’s going on? And why are you so determined to get us away from everyone else?”

Luz took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of her nose. 

“I’m just not ready to talk to anyone else about this yet.”

King paused for a moment before responding “fine, if this is what it takes to get you to open up then everything’s okay. But you need to talk to me, no more half truths.”

Luz bit her lip, pensively attempting to work up the courage to speak. “Yeah… I owe you that much. I’m afraid of flames, fire in general.”

“I did get that impression back in town, but why?” King said, visibly trying to wrap his head around this “You used to be fine around fire. Like you would get dangerously close.”

Luz sighed and placed her face into her hands. Her chest was tightening up again. She didn’t want to say anything, she didn't want to discuss any of this.

After a brief moment she managed to force herself to croak out “I fought Belos”

Then the tears returned, they began to rip down her face at an alarming speed. Luz didn’t think she would be able to hold them back any longer, she could barely choke back any form of sobbing.

King staggered back, his pupils contracting with worry. “What did he do to you?”

“It isn’t what he did… IT'S WHAT I DID!” Luz screamed “I blew up the portal, I made the conscious choice to burn my only way home to save Eda!”

“You what!” Was the only thing that King could stammer out before Luz continued..

“T-th-that’s why I was so affected earlier. Lus, my future self, proves that my choice has a permanent effect… I DON’T GET TO GO HOME!”

Luz began to sob the hardest she had in awhile, the full realization she had been denying hitting the young woman like a train.

She barely realized as King came over and embraced her, well the best that he could being a tiny little demon. Letting everything out for a little bit.

Then the tender moment was over; a loud blast from outside rocked the Owl House.  
_

Lus gritted her teeth as she stood down Lilith Clawthorn.

“How did you find us?” Lilith boomed.

Seriously?, Lus rolled her eyes and just barely restrained herself from face palming. “As if I could ever forget it; I did live here Lily.”

The two remained locked in their standoff: Both women still holding their glyph cards, ready to activate them at a moment’s notice.

Lilith made the first move by activating a card and lobbing it, while it soared through the air it melted away into a fireball.

Lus countered by summoning a wall of water which extinguished the fire before it even hit her.

“Lily I must say I’m dissatisfied with how predictable you are in combat.” Lus laughed “you have to branch out into, well I dunno Seismic Blast”

Lus activated her own card and flicked it by Lilith. The card pulsated a moment before exploding in a burst of blue energy which sent the older witch flying through the air and landing on her back.

Lilith pushed herself off the ground and readied another glyph, magenta lightning bouncing off the card.

The younger woman rolled her eyes and said “Seriously, you still wanna fight. This is gonna get us nowhere.”

No response came aside from the narrowing of Lilith’s eyes.

“Fine I guess we’re doing this” Lus groaned while pulling out an ice glyph.

Luckily the fight didn’t have to continue as the voice of Eda called “Hey! What’s going on out here”

“Edalyn, the Other human is here to attack us!”

“Oh is she?” Eda said approaching Lus “because she isn’t wearing any fancy emperor’s coven clothes”

She gestured to the grimy jacket, beanie, and striped polo that Lus was wearing.

“Why are you really here kid?”

Lus felt her face flush, disheartened she allowed her head to slightly droop down. “I didn’t know where else to go.”

“Oh, you got dumped from the coven didn’t you.” Eda bluntly said with a snort “Come on in, a shower and nap can’t hurt right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we go! I really hope you guys had a good time reading this; I certainly had fun making it! Please comment to tell me how you feel, and feel free to bookmark this story if you’re interested in where things are going. I’m very interested in knowing how you think things are gonna go with Lus. 
> 
> Aside from that I wish that everyone has a fantastic day and I’ll see y’all later!


	4. A Change in plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lus has a hard time moving into the Owl House. Luz continues having severe PTSD.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back from break! Sorry for dropping off the radar for a bit but I got stuck trying to finish the chapter and took an extended period away from it.

“Tell me again why you think this is a good idea.” Luz said to Eda, still not fully believing what was happening.

Eda just shrugged at the younger girl and responded “look kid, I just think we should give her a chance.”

Luz groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “You aren’t understanding Eda. This is my evil future self… it’s like in the last Auzura book where the evil Source Demon was revealed to be the future version of the main character; Only in real life I can’t just shrug it off and accept the true magic of friendship!”

Eda snorted and grabbed her mug off the nearby counter, taking a long slurp. “Not like anything has stopped you from doing that before”

The human clenched her fists at her side.

“Seriously why is this the thing that bothers you?” Eda continued “You were fine with Lily moving in and she attempted to murder you on multiple occasions.”

Luz searched for the correct response, scowling the entire time. She opened her mouth to respond but didn’t get the chance to as someone with a similar voice filled in.

“It’s because I prove she doesn’t go back to the Multiverse, or as you call it, the human realm.”

Luz flicked around to see the drooping form of Lus.

“I get it— I do. It was a hard adjustment for me that I may never get to go home. Then you learn about the time dilation.”

Eda spat her drink back into her mug in surprise. “Time dilation? News to me because I never encountered any time dilation over my years of junk scavenging”

Lus grimaced before continuing “Well Luz you’ve been here what… two months?”

Luz tentatively and briefly nodded.

“Yeah it’s been six months over there. My letters to mom could only cover so much now that the portal is gone”

Luz felt her heart lock up as her future self finished her sentence. Six months… this couldn’t be true, it had to be a trick.

“And you know this how?” She snapped at Lus “you said you never went home!”

Lus narrowed her eyes and snapped back “spoilers”

Luz clenched her fists and walked over to Lus “Don’t pull that! How do you know!”

Lus was looking near comically frustrated. The quickly ran a hand down the bridge of her nose before saying

“I got to see mom again… but she wasn’t the same, she was older and frail and tired.”

“B-but how is that even possible” Luz questioned

Lus rolled her eyes “Will you pay attention for once. You may learn a lot of obvious things if you listen.”

The ensuing conflict was shut down “Kids stop fighting!”

Luz was finished, she couldn’t take any more of this. “All right Eda, have fun with evil me over there.”

Then Luz turned around and bolted out the door; not willing to wait for a response.  
_

“What the heck was that?” Eda said, commenting more than asking.

Lus looked away shamefully, this was out of her control… as things usually were.

“Oh come on not you too” Eda moaned “Kid I really want to know what’s going on”

Eda snapped her fingers in front of Lus’s face in an attempt to rouse any response from the pensive girl.

Lost in thought Lus attempted to place everything in a timeline; she compulsively ran her hand across the scar on her back while she thought. After another brief moment the idea hit her.

“She hasn’t been to therapy has she?” Lus asked.

Eda was struck dumbfounded “No she hasn’t, I always thought therapists were a waste of time…”

“Yeah she needs one” Lus responded “I got one right after the… incident… helped me come to terms with everything”

Eda sighed hard and sat down. “Was I this bad with you?”

Lus felt her gut lurch as Eda continued

“I mean, I can’t get too much better if you were pushed towards Belos. You can’t even look me in the eyes for more than two seconds!”

Pushing the pain away Lus responded “Eda it isn’t what you did… it’s what you weren’t around to do.”

“Oh” Eda croaked “I see”

Lus turned back to Eda, biting the inside of her mouth to remain focus. “I came to terms with your death and I became a better person for it. Your morality and your teachings were how I excelled in a world at war—“

“But looking at me now is undoing that” Eda interjected “because for you I’ve been dead for a long time”

Lus merely nodded; expressing in a way words couldn’t.

Eda stood up and placed a hand of Lus’s shoulder.

“So that’s why you went to Belos; you figured he would be the man you knew in the future but he wasn’t”

Once again Lus nodded.

“Okay kid… I’m gonna do that weird arm thing now to prove that I’m really here”

With that Eda pulled her into a hug. Lus found herself clenching on tighter than she had in a while… even though her Eda was dead, it was nice to pretend for a little bit.  
_

Luz didn’t have a clue where to go or who she could talk to. Instead of thinking about it she found herself leaving the Owl House altogether and wandering through the woods. 

Her response back there was most likely a total overreaction on her part but it felt justified. Lus insulted her AND was evil, she doesn’t get the right to lecture her on anything.

After walking for who knows how long Luz finally stumbled upon somewhere comfortable, the tree she created with Amity.

She chided herself for not visiting the Grom Tree more often, then again things got complicated.

Walking over the young girl finally gave in to the urge to collapse and curled her legs inward as she propped her back against the tree.

“Hey dummy!”

Luz snapped her head in the direction of the voice. “W-who goes there?”

“What do you think?” Came the voice; this time in the opposite direction.

Shooting her head in that direction Luz replied “I don’t know, seems like a lot of people have a bone to pick with me.”

“Yeah well… at least I can’t hurt you .” This time right in her ear. “Check your six”

“What the—“ Luz looked over her shoulder, shocked to see what appeared to be Grom itself standing next to her in the form resembling her mother.

“Hi” it said, giving an awkward little wave.

Luz sighed “this day cannot possibly get weirder so I’ll just roll with it; Hey Grom”

It’s hand dropped to the side as it said “really… Hey Grom that’s all I get?”

“Yep”

“Come on what could possibly be more insane than me returning to torment you some more!” It groaned.

Luz chuckled “you can see inside my head… take a peek”

Grom closed its eyes and began to comb through Luz’s thoughts. “Starting lowest to highest got nightmares, test anxiety, some very— risqué? Wait, I have a better word— Spoony thoughts about Amity Blight.”

Luz felt her face go red “woah woah you are getting off track.”

A smile spread over Grom’s face as it shifted into the form of Amity. 

“Aww, someone has a crush! And that isn’t even top of the list!” Grom mused “now let’s see we have some anxiety disorder about— oh… dear— and then the Time Traveller and— yikes.”

Luz curled in tighter and rested her face in her legs. “See? You have nothing worse to show me than my ordinary reality…”

“Yeah,” it grimaced “I don't think I can top that… well how about you start taking care of the things you can from that list; talk to your friends maybe?”

Luz laughed “you know that isn’t half bad… wait why are you being helpful”

“I dunno” Grom shrugged “I am really bored all the time, these visits are the only source of entertainment I have.”

“Ah, you’ve ruined the hopeful feelings you gave me”

Grom began to cackle again “see, I’m already mildly entertained. Now seriously go try and have a meaningful conversation with someone.”  
_

It didn’t take Luz as long to get home as it did to reach the tree. Although this was more of a light jog than a mopey walk.

Once she entered the Owl House the first thing she noticed was Lus sitting on the couch scribbling in a notebook.

“You shouldn’t go to Grom for advice” she said, not even looking up from her writing.

Luz rolled her eyes “it isn’t nice to spy on people”

This time Lus snapped her notebook shut and looked over “look at who you’re talking to… I had plenty of chats with that stupid tree. Oh and if it told you to invest in weirdness bonds don’t”

“Maybe I will, it’s my mistake to make.” Luz huffed in defiance.

She quickly moved towards her room, wanting to cancel this interaction with the older girl.

As soon as Luz reached the door Lus loudly sighed.

“Look kid I’m gonna level with you, this is weird for me too. I’m sorry I was such a jerk when we met, I was caught up in the moment.”

Luz didn’t say anything, she didn’t face Lus, she was barely holding it together as it is. Luz didn’t want to believe the older girl, she didn’t want to trust her.

“You don’t have to say anything, I’m staying here whether you want me to or not… you try to tolerate my existence and I’ll keep trying to make it up to you, I can show you how to do several things and I might be able to give you some tips when it comes to social interaction.”

That was enough. Luz started walking again and made it to her room. 

She fought the temptation to cry, she couldn’t cry. 

Luz raked her hands through her hair clenching her teeth. She haphazardly slammed her fist down, feeling something crunch and shatter.

Looking down the teen saw something that pushed her over the edge. Tears began to fall as she realized she had broken her phone, bits of the glass screen shattered and stuck into her hand one of her last connections to her old life gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks, I wanted to check in and apologize again I want to be upfront about it. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. I’m also removing “New Year” from this story and putting it on a companion story because it kind of takes away from the overall story. I hope y’all have a fantastic day and I’ll see you later.


End file.
